Finding Her Place
by Shades of Mundane
Summary: Ginny isn't doing so great a few years after the war, so she goes to see her uncle for some advice. Pretty much ignores the HP epilogue. Oneshot.


Title: Finding Her Place

Rating: I'm saying K+, but this whole rating system baffles me - so if anybody thinks it should be changed, let me know

Fandom/s: Harry Potter / NCIS

Characters: Ginny Weasley, Jethro Gibbs, little bit of Tony DiNozzo

Summary: Ginny isn't doing so great a few years after the war, so she goes to see her uncle for some advice. Pretty much ignores the HP epilogue. Oneshot.

Timeline: NCIS - a few weeks before Yankee White, so the team is just Gibbs and DiNozzo. Harry Potter - A few years after the war

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Harry Potter _or_ NCIS. If only.

* * *

Ginny Weasley stood on the pavement, staring up at the large brick building which housed the NCIS headquarters, as she wondered what had possessed her to come here. Her uncle probably didn't even want to see her. She hadn't even replied to any of his more recent letters. She sighed, and shook her head - she was here now, she might as well do what she'd come for. She breathed deeply and entered the main lobby of the building, heading for the front desk.

A few minutes later, she was being escorted into what looked like a small conference room by a handsome agent who she couldn't help but fancy, despite the fact he must have been about a decade older than her. His blatant flirting suggested she wasn't the only one who didn't mind the age difference. She grinned at him as he cracked another joke, before leaving her to go find his boss, Agent Gibbs. She wondered whether he would flirt with her so much if he knew that Agent Gibbs was actually her uncle.

Once he'd left the room, Ginny found her smile fading. She took a seat on one of the many semi-comfortable-looking chairs that surrounded the large table, kicking off her shoes and pulling her knees to her chest. She'd thought a conference room would be a lot larger than this one, but she supposed it was probably not the biggest they had. After all, Agent DiNozzo had called it 'Conference Room Four' in a somewhat overly dramatic manner, so she supposed there was at least another three in the building. Maybe they were larger. She couldn't help but smile at her own completely inane train of thought.

Dropping her forehead to her knees, her thoughts drifted to home. She hadn't told any of them she was coming here, to America, to visit her uncle. She'd didn't think they would understand. After all, that was why she was here, wasn't it? Because they didn't understand. And, even sadder, neither did she.

She heard the door click, and looked up to find her uncle staring at her. She smiled at him, genuinely happy to see him. He looked good. His hair was less brown, more silver, and his face looked just that bit older as well, but he looked happy. Happier than he'd ever looked since Kelly and Aunt Shannon had died. She wondered what had changed. Did that Agent DiNozzo have anything to do with it? Someone he could relate to, perhaps. Or, had he remarried? Again. Her parents hadn't said anything about him marrying again, though, and they probably would have been invited to the wedding. So, probably not. But maybe there was another girlfriend on the scene. Whatever was making him more like the Uncle J she'd known when she was a little girl - when Kelly had been her very best friend - she hoped it would be around for a long while, because she'd missed seeing him like this.

His voice pulled her away from her thoughts, and she realised he'd taken a seat opposite her at the table. How had she not noticed that? She looked at him quizzically, realising she hadn't heard whatever he'd said. He laughed, "I said, 'Hi Ginny'."

She blushed but smiled, "Hi. Sorry, I was in my own world."

"I noticed."

"It's good to see you, Uncle J. I've missed you."

"Missed you too, Gin. That why you're here?" She thought about that. She had missed him, a lot. It was one of the reasons she'd decided to come visit rather than owling him, or even going down to the muggle village and using the payphone. But, it wasn't why she had wanted to talk to him in the first place.

"A little... But mostly, no." They fell silent for a moment, as she sat wondering how to start.

"How are your parents?" He broke the silence. She must have been pondering a little longer than she'd thought.

"They're okay. Dad's doing better at the Ministry, now that Kingsley's running the place. And Mum's pretty much the same as she ever is. She still gets a bit funny sometimes. I think it's when something reminds her of Fred. She's much better about the war now, though."

"Good. Your brothers?" Ginny knew her uncle had heard all of this before. She also knew this was his way of getting her to start talking without pushing her. It always worked.

"Charlie's still in Romania, with his dragons. Honestly, I don't think he'll ever leave. Ron went up there for a bit after he and Hermione split. But he's back at the Ministry now, sharing a flat with Harry in Diagon Alley. Bill, Fleur and Victoire are staying in France for the moment. Fleur's just found out she's pregnant again, due early March, I think. So everyone's thrilled about that. Percy's better than ever. He's been promoted, which you've heard already, I expect. But, he's also got himself a girlfriend - Audrey. She seems nice, though I've only met her a couple times. George has been really busy, of course, with Angelina about ready to pop he's been taking little Freddie to the shop with him, which is just a disaster waiting to happen. But they're good. All of them."

"So, you're not here about any of them. What's goin' on, Gin? Why are you here?" She knew he could see right through her. He'd always been able to tell when there was something wrong, when she wasn't dealing. It was just one of the things she'd missed about having him around. It was also why she hadn't written to him in such a long time, knowing he would be able to tell that she wasn't as happy as she liked to pretend.

She sighed, this was stupid.

She shouldn't be here, dumping all her ridiculous little problems at the feet of a man who'd been through more in his life than she could imagine.

"Ah." Ginny shook her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come. I don't know why I did, really. I just... "

"Ginny, just tell me what's going on. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"No! No, I'm not in any trouble." He was looking at her expectantly, waiting for an explanation. She just sat there, staring at her hands.

"Is this about Fred?" Her head shot up. _Fred? Why would it be about Fred?_ She wondered.

"Because I don't think you dealt with his death as well as everyone believed, Gin." Huh. Apparently she'd said that part out loud. He was right though, everyone thought she'd been fine after the war was over, despite the fact that _her brother_ had _died_. She'd not been fine. But she'd been about the same as ever. Truth was, she hadn't been fine since she was eleven years old. And that was it, wasn't it? She'd gotten so damn good at pretending everything was sunshine and roses in little Ginny's world, that nobody had been able to tell the difference. But she couldn't tell him that.

"It's not about Fred. It's... It's everything. Everyone's just moved on from the war, you know? Even Mum, who was really upset all the time for a while there. And, it's good, I'm happy that they're all getting on with their lives. They've all got brilliant careers, and significant others, and kids on the way. Everyone's happy. And I just... I don't know." She frowned for a moment, before getting to her feet. "I'm sorry, this is stupid. I'm just being self-pitying. I shouldn't have bothered you, Uncle J." He jumped up before she could open the door, and gently pushed her back into her seat.

"It's not stupid. But I need you to tell me what the problem is. I can't help you if you don't explain, Ginny."

"Everyone is so stable - steady job, steady relationship, steady life. They've got it all figured out, and I'm just drifting along. I have no idea what I'm doing, no idea how to be a normal girl, and no idea how to fix my life. It just feels like everything's gone to hell. Is it weird that my world seemed to make more sense when we were in the middle of a war, and I was never sure we'd even live to see the next day?"

Sure, she'd been thoroughly unhappy for most of her school years, and her first year had haunted her constantly. But her world had made more sense. She was the little sister of Ron Weasley, sidekick to the Boy-Who-Lived. She was the girl who got possessed by Tom Riddle, though nobody dared mention it. She'd been a student, and a fighter. And she'd thought she would die in the war. She never believed she would live on, mourning those she had lost, and trying to figure out what to do with her life. She'd never believed she had a future. That little voice in her head, the one that sounded just like Tom, would whisper her death at the hands of the thing he had become. And she'd believed it. Now, she didn't know what to do with herself. It was like she no longer had a place in the world. Just drifting along, as she'd told her uncle.

"It's not weird. It's not even that unusual. It happens to a lot of people who've fought in wars, Ginny. Men and women much older and more experienced than you. You kids were too young to have been front line in that damn war. You ever spoken to anyone about everything that happened to you while you were at school?" Ginny shook her head slowly. Who was she supposed to talk to? Everyone she knew had been through at least as much horror as she had. "Don't they have wizard psychologists or somethin' in your world?"

"I don't know. What's a psychologist?"

"It's someone you can speak to about things that are bothering you. Things that you don't think you can tell other people. Your medi-wizards - do they have any that focus on mental health?"

"Not really. They have mental health wards at St Mungo's, but they're mostly for people who are too far gone to help. Like Neville's parents."

"Damn wizarding world. So concerned with separating themselves from the rest of us that they're so far behind."

"I don't see how dumping all my problems on someone else is going to help anyone."

"I've never found shrinks useful, but you never know, Gin. It might help you sort some things out." She shrugged and stared at her hands again. The muggle world was strange sometimes. Why would she want to tell her life story to a complete stranger? She couldn't even bring herself to tell her friends and family the truth. Why did he think she was going to be able to speak to one of these psychologists? She heard him sigh again as he watched her. "So, what have you been doing since you finished school? You got some of those newt-things, right?"

"Yeah, I got a few."

"So, have you been working?"

"Yeah."

"Ginny," He sighed. "Give me something to work with here. I know you aren't gonna go and see a shrink. I don't blame you, I wouldn't want to either. So I'll do what I can. But, I can't help you if you don't give me a little more information. Now, where have you been working?"

"I worked at the Three Broomsticks for a while, and Ollivander's, that was interesting. I worked for George, but that didn't go so well, and Madam Malkin's. Shop assistant, tester, waitress, bartender, childcare, and everything else I could do that I could be trained for on the spot, or didn't really need training. I even did a couple months helping Hagrid out with the Hogwarts grounds. Suffice it to say, I will never make that mistake again. I don't know if there's anything I haven't tried." Working with Hagrid had been a disaster. The man really had trouble telling the difference between a harmless creature, and one that would happily rip you in half.

"What about jobs that do need specialist training?"

"There wasn't really much about. And what there was, I didn't seem to have the right N.E.W.T.s for. There just doesn't seem to be anything I'm suited for. It makes me miss school a bit, you know? I mean I used to enjoy the work. Learning new stuff. I didn't enjoy it as much as Hermione seemed to. In fact, I don't think anybody, ever, has enjoyed schoolwork as much as Hermione. But, I was good at it."

"Ginny, everything you've listed has been in the wizarding world."

"Yeah..." She shot him a look. One she hoped conveyed her _'obviously...'_ expression nicely. He ignored it.

"Have you thought that maybe you should look at the, uh, muggle world? You could go to university. Go back to learning, until you figure out what you really want to do with your life. You used to love the stuff Kelly would tell you she was learning at school."

"You mean, like science, or something?"

"Anything you were interested in."

"But I couldn't get into a muggle university. I've never been to a muggle school. I don't even really know how to live in a muggle house."

"There are tutors that could help you with that kind of thing, Ginny. Shannon did the same thing when she moved here. I'll even give you a hand if you want."

"Really?"

"Of course. I know I haven't been around as much as I'd like to have been, Gin, but I still consider you one of my own. I meant it when I said it, and I mean it now." She smiled at him, knowing she probably looked teary-eyed. "Now, I can set you up with a tutor at home if you want, and figure something out for you to attend an English university. Or, you're always welcome to stay with me for a while, and I can get you a tutor here."

"I... You really wouldn't mind me staying with you?"

"For as long as you need."

"I think I just need to get away from everything at home. Figure out what I'm doing."

"I think it's probably the best thing for you at this point. But, you know, you still need to speak to someone about everything that's happened to you, Gin. It doesn't have to be me, or a psychologist. But you need to do something about it. Running away from it all and suppressing everything isn't going to help in the long run."

"I know. But, I need to get everything else sorted out first before I can even think about dealing with all that crap." She hugged him, laying her head on his chest as his arms wrapped around her for a moment. "Thank you."

"You need a place to stay tonight?"

"If it's okay?"

"Come on, we'll get a pizza. I don't have anything edible in my fridge." She followed him out of the room, feeling lighter than she had in, well, years.

Gibbs stopped by his desk, to grab his stuff before leading her towards the elevator, passing Agent DiNozzo as he watched her with a smirk on his face. "Hey, Gin?"

"Yeah, Uncle J?"

"Just how much did DiNozzo flirt with you?" She laughed as she watched the surprise and horror flash across the younger agent's face, her uncle chuckling slightly beside her. She had a feeling this was just what she needed. A place where no one knew who Ginny Weasley really was. Maybe she'd even do something great in the muggle world.

Ron had always wanted to be the one in the spotlight, wanted to be set apart from everybody else.

Ginny had only ever wanted to be normal, to fit in, to find her place in the world.

Maybe this was her chance.


End file.
